Yesterday afternoon I dropped in on Alisa Clancy’s “Jazz from the Hill” class in downtown San Mateo. It’s part of the San Mateo County Community Education Emeritus Institute, and Alisa has been presenting it for a dozen years or more, apparently without repetition, and still with some of the original “students”.
I caught some of “The Sound of Jazz”, from 1957. (In case you don’t know, “The Sound of Jazz” was the program for jazz from the CBS TV series “Seven Lively Arts”.) I’d seen it all before, of course, but I never tire of watching it. What I saw contained the sequence where Thelonious Monk is playing his “Blue Monk”, wearing a cap and what appear to be bamboo-framed dark glasses, and Count Basie is seated across the piano from him, as if trying to psych Monk out or simply wondering what on Earth Monk is doing. We also saw superb versions of two tunes by the Count Basie Orchestra (including a few ringers): first, Jimmy Rushing doing “I Left My Baby”, and then the band doing “Dickie’s Dream”. If you’ve never seen Jo Jones, then you have a treat in store for you!
Basie was playing a lot of piano on the latter: not just a lot of piano for Basie, which isn’t saying much (”it’s not about the notes you play, it’s about the notes you don’t play”), but simply a lot of piano. It’s interesting, I think, to see how two such spare players as Basie and Monk are, at root, whittled-down stride pianists.
The session ended with the classic “Fine and Mellow”, written and sung by Billie Holiday. She was accompanied by a really fine small band featuring two of the true giants of jazz, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young (the centenary of the latter occurs tomorrow, August 27th). Also in the band were their fellow tenor player, Ben Webster, and my man Roy Eldridge on trumpet (Roy had played flugelhorn earlier with the Basie band, an instrument I hadn’t known him
to play).
The members of Alisa’s class are all over the jazz spectrum, from the novice to those who could (and do) teach her and me a thing or two, but two things they have in common are their love of jazz and of having a good time. If you’d like to join them, then the formal way is to enroll via www.communityed.smccd.net or 650-574-6149; the informal way is just to show up for the 1.30pm start on a Tuesday afternoon in the penthouse of the Peninsula Regent, 1 Baldwin Avenue, San Mateo, and go from there.
“Young at heart”? Lester, of course!
I’m not familiar with “The Sound of Jazz” but I’m sure I’d like to see it.
Sounds like a little internet search is in order. (I’m an internet listener – in fits & starts – from the center of Missouri.)
I did not know that Alisa did a class on Tues. at 1:30!!!!! I am so excited!
The scene of Thelonious Monk playing with Count Basie sitting there watching him has a follow up. In the 1988 documentary on Monk, “Straight No Chaser”, if I remember correctly (and there’s no guarantee of that), there’s a scene where Monk is talking about playing while Basie’s watching him. Monk says he didn’t like it, having Basie staring at him, “Maybe I’ll go to one of his gigs and stare at him.” My guess is that would be more unnerving than Basie’s bewildered look.
The “Fine and Mellow” from “The Sound of Jazz” has that marvelously poignant exchange, for one last time, betweeen Lady Day and Prez. Prez’s solo is a model of economy in blues expression — a necessity of his declining health, which left some onlookers wondering whether he’d be able to stand for his solo before the cameras.
And so here we are on the eve of the Centennial of Lester Young’s birth on August 27, 1909. If you’re interested in reading more about Prez’s life and music, Dave Gelly has penned a couple of excellent ones — entertaining and informative. For the more musicologically inclined, Lewis Porter’s “Lester Young” and “You’ve Got To Be Original, Man” by Frank Buchmann-Moller (sorry for the missing diacriticals) are richly detailed and well-researched examinations of Young’s life and music. All three authors convincingly reject the once-popular notion that Prez’s post-war music was not as powerful as his earlier playing.
Thanks Michael for dropping by the class… it’s always great meeting KCSM’s hosts. Alisa’s class is incredible as she is! I’ve been attending for approximately four years and keep learning, learning and learning. I’m not a musician but a great 24/7 listener. You guys keep stuffing my ears with all that fantastic music. Enjoyed the brief walk with you back to our cars after class.